Four victims · two overturned convictions · one forensic reversal
Confession-driven prosecutions gave way to exclusions, overturned convictions, and a later convergence of Y-STR DNA and ballistics around a different suspect.
On December 6, 1991, four teens—Jennifer and Sarah Harbison, Eliza Thomas, and Amy Ayers—were found bound, gagged, and shot inside the I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt! shop on West Anderson Lane in Austin, which had been set on fire. Police arrested four local youths in 1999, leading to two convictions in 2001–2002, but appellate rulings and new DNA evidence prompted their release in 2009 and formal exonerations in February 2026. In September 2025, Austin police named deceased serial offender Robert Eugene Brashers as the likely perpetrator based on DNA and ballistics, yet the case remains officially unsolved.
The victims
Four lives at the center of a decades-long case
Recent developments
Recent reporting and official developments, labeled by source and verification status.
May 29, 2026 · CBS News
CBS News reviewed how DNA evidence and a bullet casing recovered from a drain helped investigators connect serial offender Robert Eugene Brashers to the murders, while revisiting the original investigation's false-confession failures.
Context
Austin police identify Brashers as the likely perpetrator, but the deceased suspect cannot be prosecuted and the case remains officially unsolved.
May 22, 2026 · Warner Bros. Discovery Pressroom
A new documentary episode follows Detective Dan Jackson through the DNA, genetic-genealogy, and ballistics work that identified Brashers and examines what the development means for victims' families and the men once accused.
Context
The episode documents the authorities' conclusion and remaining uncertainty rather than presenting a criminal adjudication of Brashers.
Feb 19, 2026 · Associated Press
A Texas judge formally declared Michael Scott, Robert Springsteen, Maurice Pierce, and Forrest Welborn innocent after prosecutors acknowledged that the men had been wrongly accused in the 1991 murders.
Context
The ruling clears the four men; it does not constitute a conviction or judicial finding against Robert Eugene Brashers.
The scale
Key figures are drawn from the published case record.
An investigation in reversals
Early arrests led to convictions, later DNA undermined them, and new ballistics and Y-STR work eventually pointed investigators toward a different suspect.
See all 2 mapped locations →Dec 6, 1991
Jennifer Harbison, Sarah Harbison, Eliza Thomas, and Amy Ayers were found bound, gagged, sexually assaulted, and shot inside the I Can't Believe It's Yogurt! shop, which had been set on fire.
Jan 1, 1999
A revived task force re-interviewed the original four young men and arrested Maurice Pierce, Forrest Welborn, Robert Springsteen, and Michael Scott in 1999.
Jan 1, 2001
Michael Scott was convicted and sentenced to life, and Robert Springsteen was convicted and sentenced to death, with the prosecutions relying heavily on confession evidence rather than physical evidence.
Jan 1, 2009
The state dropped the remaining charges after appellate rulings and Y-STR testing excluded the original suspects from the unknown male profile recovered from the scene.
Sep 29, 2025
Austin police announced that DNA, ballistics, and modus-operandi evidence pointed to deceased serial offender Robert Eugene Brashers as the likely perpetrator, while the case remained open because he was dead.
Feb 19, 2026
A Travis County judge declared Maurice Pierce, Forrest Welborn, Robert Springsteen, and Michael Scott actually innocent of the yogurt shop murders.
How the case turned
The 2001–2002 prosecutions of Robert Springsteen and Michael Scott relied heavily on confession evidence rather than corroborating physical evidence.
Y-STR testing reviewed in 2009 excluded the four previously accused men from the unknown male profile, leading to dismissal of remaining charges that year.
A fired .380 cartridge casing recovered from a floor drain at the scene was resubmitted to NIBIN in July 2025 and returned a same-day hit to another homicide, indicating the same firearm was used in more than one crime.
On September 29, 2025, Austin police publicly identified Robert Eugene Brashers as the likely perpetrator based on DNA, ballistics, and modus operandi.
A casing recovered from a floor drain later produced an interstate NIBIN link, adding firearm evidence independent of the confession-driven prosecutions.
Compare the evidence and theories →Where certainty changes
Open each layer to see what the archive treats as core, contested, or unresolved.
Go deeper
This overview is the map. The case tabs hold the underlying events, people, media, locations, and source material.